Connect MySQL to a FiveM Server with oxmysql

A roleplay FiveM server cannot run without a database: players, vehicles, inventories, money, everything is stored there. oxmysql is the resource that links your scripts to MySQL. This guide covers the install, the connection string and the start order - the three places where it all happens.

⚙️ Requirements

• A Lordhosting FiveM server, reachable from the panel
• A MySQL or MariaDB database with its user and password
• A framework installed: ESX or QBCore - see ESX vs QBCore
• SFTP access or the panel file manager

⚙️ 1. Install oxmysql

Download the latest version from the overextended/oxmysql repository (the oxmysql.zip file on the Releases page, not the source archive). Extract it, then drop the folder into resources/:

resources/
  ├── [standalone]/
  │     └── oxmysql/
  ├── [core]/
  └── [scripts]/

The folder name must stay exactly oxmysql: other resources call it by that name.

⚙️ 2. Write the connection string

In server.cfg, add this line before any ensure:

set mysql_connection_string "mysql://user:[email protected]:3306/fivem?charset=utf8mb4"

The key-value syntax also works and reads better when the password holds special characters:

set mysql_connection_string "server=127.0.0.1;database=fivem;userid=user;password=password;charset=utf8mb4"

⚙️ 3. Respect the start order

oxmysql must load before the framework, which must load before the scripts:

ensure oxmysql
ensure es_extended      # or qb-core
ensure your-script

An ensure oxmysql placed after the framework produces oxmysql was not found, even when the resource is correctly installed. By far the most common cause.

⚙️ 4. Import the framework schema

Each framework ships its .sql files. Import them in the order its documentation gives, with phpMyAdmin or on the command line:

mysql -u user -p fivem < es_extended.sql

Then check the tables are there:

SHOW TABLES;
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users;

An empty database when the framework starts produces Unknown column errors as soon as a player connects.

⚙️ 5. Verify the connection

Start the server and read the console. oxmysql states its status clearly:

[oxmysql] Database server connection established

From the server console, two useful commands:

set mysql_debug true

Debug mode logs every query with its duration - valuable for spotting a script hammering the database in a loop. Turn it off in production, it fills the logs.

⚙️ 6. Fix the common errors

• Unable to establish a connection to the database: wrong credentials or database name. Test them with a MySQL client from the same machine.
• oxmysql was not found: start order, or a misnamed folder.
• ER_NOT_SUPPORTED_AUTH_MODE: the MySQL 8 user uses caching_sha2_password. Switch it to mysql_native_password.
• Too many connections: a resource opens connections without releasing them. Debug mode identifies the culprit.
• Broken accents in game: charset=utf8mb4 missing from the connection string.

⚙️ Ready-to-paste configuration

Three blocks: the database, the resource, the check.

1. Create the database, on the MySQL server - replace the password with a generated one (openssl rand -base64 24):

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS fivem
  CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER IF NOT EXISTS 'fivem'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'MY_PASSWORD';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON fivem.* TO 'fivem'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

2. The server.cfg block, in exactly this order - connection string before any ensure, oxmysql before the framework, the framework before the scripts:

# ---- Database ------------------------------------------------------------
# Key-value form: preferable as soon as the password contains @ : / or #
set mysql_connection_string "server=127.0.0.1;database=fivem;userid=fivem;password=MY_PASSWORD;charset=utf8mb4"

# ---- Start order ---------------------------------------------------------
ensure oxmysql          # always first
ensure es_extended      # or qb-core
ensure your-script      # your resources after that

3. The check, in the server console at startup:

# The line you want to see in the console
[oxmysql] Database server connection established

# Measure slow queries while diagnosing
set mysql_debug true

And the test outside the game, which separates a credentials problem from a resource problem:

# If this command works, the database and account are fine:
# anything left is a server.cfg or start-order problem
mysql -u fivem -p -h 127.0.0.1 fivem -e "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users;"

✅ Conclusion

Your database is linked to FiveM, the schema is imported and the start order is right. Continue with configuring server.cfg and installing txAdmin for day-to-day administration.

Our FiveM servers include a MySQL database on the same infrastructure: latency between the game server and the database stays below a millisecond.